


Thunderbird vs Pukwudgie

by Mars_McKie



Series: Thunderbirds Are Go - Ilvermorny AU [4]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Thunderbirds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ilvermorny, Other characters as teachers and classmates, Quodpot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-12
Updated: 2017-09-12
Packaged: 2018-12-27 04:52:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12073884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars_McKie/pseuds/Mars_McKie
Summary: With the first Quodpot match of the season looming, Scott must pull together a winning team. Will Virgil and Gordon make the team again? And will Thunderbird win their match against Pukwudgie?





	Thunderbird vs Pukwudgie

**Author's Note:**

> There are certain rules in the official releases for Quodpot which are still missing or vague, so I have filled in some rules myself (I hope everything makes sense!) You can find more information on Quodpot on either Pottermore or the Harry Potter Wikia.
> 
> I hope you're enjoying the series!

The second Saturday of term, Scott got down to the Quodpot pitch while the rest of the school was still at breakfast. Finally, after a summer of having to hold back for fear of being spotted by No-Majs, he mounted his Firebolt and kicked off hard.

The rush was like nothing he’d experienced on a broom before- the stadium became a blur as he sped past the stands, doing great loops around the pitch so that the G-force made his head pound. He climbed as high as he dared go until the castle became a speck among the mountains beneath him. He flipped into a controlled dive, the ground rushing up to meet him and he pulled out of the dive at the last possible moment so that his knees kissed the grass. It was unnecessarily fast for a Keeper’s broom, given he should never move far from the Pot he was protecting, but when it was still the best broom on the market -despite its age- nobody really cared about that.

“Looking good!” came a call from near the dressing room. Virgil was holding his Cleansweep 12 in one hand and his Quodpot robes in the other. Scott flew over to meet him and staggered slightly on the landing. “I thought it would be too presumptuous to be wearing these.” Virgil held out his robes from the previous year.

“Of course you’re still on the team!” Scott exclaimed, clapping him on the shoulder. Virgil was a great Beater; even if his aim wasn’t always 100% he always looked out for his teammates and helped them enjoy themselves more during training.

“You never know; there might be someone better than me,” said Virgil seriously.

“Better aim, maybe. But not better team spirit,” Scott told him. Their conversation was cut short as more of their house filtered out onto the pitch, all clutching brooms and looking excited for try-outs.

Quodpot teams were made up of eleven people- eight Players, whose job it was to throw the Quod (a ball the same size as a Basketball) up the pitch and into the opponent’s Pot (a cauldron one metre in diameter) to gain a point; a Keeper, who guarded the Pot and stopped the other team from scoring; and two Beaters, whose job it was to belt Bludgers (two vicious balls that flew around the pitch trying to knock players off of their brooms) at the other team’s players to stop them from scoring, and to protect their own teammates from the Bludgers.

The game was made more tricky by the fact that at random points during the game, the Quod would explode and whoever was holding it at that point had to leave the field of play (made obvious by the red dye that would stain the hands of the player holding it at the time). There was a solution in the Pots to stop the Quod from exploding, but the game would only end when all eight Players from any one team got sent off. The team that still had Players would get as many points as there were Players left on the pitch, and the winners were the team with the most points.

There were over thirty people trying out today (which was good as Scott knew it was just as important to have good reserves on the bench in case anything happened), and as well as Virgil being there, Gordon and Alan had also turned up.

“Sorry Alan,” Scott shook his head at the youngest. “First years aren’t allowed to try out.”

Alan put on his best butter-wouldn’t-melt puppy face. “But I can do it, you know I can!”

“Alan,” Scott lowered his voice and leaned in so no one else could hear him. “You’re one of the best fliers I know, and I would be proud to have you on my team, but those are the rules. You’ll have your chance to try out next year and then everyone will see how great you are.”

Alan still looked put out about this, so Scott added, “I’ll let you have a go on my Firebolt after try-outs have finished.”

This softened the blow as Alan turned and slouched off the pitch, dragging his borrowed school broom behind him. Scott saw him take a seat in the stands with Aiden and Chip, and he turned to the rest of the hopefuls.

Firstly, he got them to do some simple flying exercises, making a note of those with good control to definitely watch out for later. He tested the accuracy of the potential Beaters with some enchanted balls. Finally, he got them to split into two teams and play against each other (sans Keepers, so he could fly around and watch them all individually).

There were plenty of players he was happy to bring back from last year (including Virgil and a seventh year Chaser named Jane Carter), and some new faces to replace those who had left. But he wasn’t sure what to do about Gordon- he was a good flier and seemed to have a sixth sense for when the Quod was about to explode and would quickly palm it off to the other team if he was holding it (the Tracys all knew it couldn’t be an Extrasensory Charm, as he was able to do it while they played among themselves over the school holidays. A Quod dropped by Gordon was not one to be picked up, and whenever the brothers asked him how he did it, he just called it his Squid Sense). It was his penchant for trouble which bothered Scott.

After an hour, he called everyone back down to the ground. With promises that the line up would be posted in the common room by the end of the day, the hopefuls filtered back to the school.

Alan rushed down from the stands with Aiden and Chip in tow and Scott handed over his prized Firebolt. While Alan flew as fast as he could, Scott looked over his notes again, making up his mind. Maybe he could use this as an opportunity to focus Gordon’s mind on something other than mischief and skiving off to swim in the lake in the valley (last year he had used a Bubble Head Charm and a spell of his own invention to stop the pressure underwater from affecting the human body to dive to the bottom of the lake. Both spells had worked perfectly, but after he had surfaced he’d been put straight into detention).

With the line up complete, he copied it down on a second sheet of parchment, called Alan down and headed back up to the school for lunch. He cornered Gordon in the Great Hall.

“Did I make it back onto the reserve team?” Gordon asked the second he saw Scott.

“I’m willing to make you a deal,” said Scott quietly. Gordon’s eyes widened. “If you can stay out of detention, then I will take you off of the reserve team and add you to the team.”

“Really?” Gordon beamed. “I’ll do it! You won’t regret it!”

“You make sure of that,” nodded Scott. That afternoon he pinned the parchment to the notice board so that Gordon could see for himself that he wasn’t lying.

*

The Thunderbird team began training three nights a week for their first match. If Scott had his way it would have been more, but Francois Lemaire (the Captain of the Pukwudgie team) was doing all he could to book up as many training slots as possible. Not to mention the Wampus and Horned Serpent teams also needed to train for their matches later in the season.

Virgil and Gordon had been spying on the Pukwudgie practise sessions (against whom they would play the first match of the school Quodpot season) and reported back to the team.

“Total disarray,” said Virgil. “Francois spent the whole time ordering the team around. When he shut up they actually did alright, providing they didn’t do what he told them.”

“Francois is one bad player, but if he gets sent off quickly then the rest of his team could stand a chance against us,” Scott reminded them. “There are plenty of good people in Pukwudgie, but we can’t give them a chance to shine. It’s in our interest to keep Francois in play for as long as possible.”

The team agreed. It might be seen as a dirty tactic, but in Quodpot they had to take every hold of every advantage the other team gave them. The team trained in high spirits after this report, with Virgil doing his best impressions of Francois shouting nonsensical orders at his team.

In the times when they couldn’t get on the pitch, the team was sat together in the common room going over tactics. Their team needed to have possession of the Quod in order to score, but keeping possession over any period of time wasn’t favoured as if a goal wasn’t scored quickly there was an increasing chance of the Quod exploding while in their possession.

As a way of simulating this in the common room, Scott took a potato from the dinner table one night and introduced the team to a No-Maj game his mother had taught the boys as children called Hot Potato.

Virgil and Gordon both laughed at the memory of the game, and a few other Players laughed, but it did the trick as they all passed the potato around the circle as tactically as possible so that they weren’t holding it when the chant ended.

It was a real stretch for Scott, fitting all this training in around homework and his duties as Head Boy, but he was pleased with their progress. So long as they remembered to take Pukwudgie seriously.

*

The morning of the match was chilly and overcast, with only a slight wind.

In the dressing room, the team changed into their sky blue robes (Pukwudgie would be playing in yellow). The tension of a Quodpot match was setting in properly now, especially among the newer players.

“How’s the old squid sense today?” Scott murmured to Gordon.

Gordon just nodded. He seemed like he might be about to throw up.

Scott clapped him on the shoulder. “No matter what happens, it’ll be fine.”

Gordon nodded again, his mouth clamped shut. Scott straightened up to address everyone.

“OK team!” he said, gearing up for his pre-match pep talk. They all went silent. “This is it. It’s our time to prove to the school that Thunderbird are the _best goddamn team there is_. We’ve trained longer and harder than anyone else, and more than that we all know that we can count on each other, and that we have each others’ backs out there. Pukwudgie are a shambles compared to us, now let’s go prove it! Everyone ready?”

The team shouted, “Yeah!”

Scott raised his Firebolt in the air. “Then this is it- Thunderbirds are go!”

The team cheered and they followed Scott out onto the pitch. The roar of the crowd in the stands was deafening, and Scott spotted Alan and John holding between them a large banner bearing the words ‘Thunderbirds for the Cup!’ Kayo and Virgil’s friend Hiram were also there, cheering on the Thunderbird team.

They waited a minute for the Pukwudgie team, led onto the pitch by their Captain- Francois Lemaire, a snobbish seventh year from a wealthy family who -like Scott- flew a Firebolt. Behind him walked Madeline Atwal- another Player, Head Girl and Francois’ girlfriend. She had an air of knowing confidence to her, and quite rightly as Scott knew her to be one of the best Players on the Pukwudgie team.

“Captains, shake hands!” shouted Madame Coleman. Scott and Francois shook hands, a smug smile playing across Francois’ lips. “Mount your brooms!”

A great hush fell across the crowd as the players got ready to kick off. Madame Coleman blew her whistle and twenty two brooms rose into the air to great applause. Scott raced to defend his goal (hovering the regulation two metres away from the Pot- a rule introduced after the 1801 Quodpot tournament due to Keepers being all but sat inside their Pots to block goals) as the commentary started up.

“And here we go!” came the voice of commentator (and Gordon’s friend from third year) Horse Williams. “The first Quodpot game of the season and it’s Thunderbird in possession. Carter racing up the pitch- a welcome return to the team after her excellent season last year. Lemaire has caught up with her and she passes to Anderson, she charges away- ooh, that was a horrible Bludger from the Pukwudgie Beater Jarman there! And it’s now Whitehall of Pukwudgie in possession, he charges up the pitch towards the Pot, he shoots- blocked by Captain Tracy! Brilliant save there! He throws the Quod back to Hardiker who passes to Menkin- _ha_! A Bludger hit away by Beater Tracy! Menkin passes to Brodie who passes back to Carter, she shoots, SHE SCORES! That’s one point to Thunderbird!”

The supporters below cheered as Jane Carter did a loop to celebrate. Madame Coleman brought out another Quod, tapped it with her wand, threw it up in the air at the centre of the pitch and blew her whistle again.

“Thunderbird leading as Atwal takes possession. She throws to Whitehall who charges towards the goal again- blocked by a Bludger from Thunderbird Beater Dyneley! He drops the Quod and it’s caught by Tracy, and there are now too many Tracys on the pitch for me to count anymore! This new Player Tracy races up the pitch and _oh_! he tries to throw to Anderson but it’s intercepted by Darby of Pukwudgie! Darby races- no! The Quod has exploded! Darby is off!”

The Pukwudgies below booed as Madame Coleman’s whistle blew. Gordon flashed a thumbs up to Scott which he returned.

A new Quod was introduced and play continued. Scott intercepted another Quod from Whitehall and threw it quickly back to Hardiker. It wasn’t advisable for the Keeper to hold on to the Quod for any amount of time, because if it exploded while the Keeper held it then the team wasn’t allowed to bring on another Keeper, which could completely swing the game.

Hardiker scored, but the next Quod was grabbed by Madeline who managed to put it past Scott, giving the Pukwudgies something to cheer about. Madeline winked at Scott and he smiled back defiantly.

Play continued for another fifteen fast-paced minutes. Their first loss came when the Quod exploded on Menkin, shortly followed by Brodie, and (to spoil their plan) Lemaire. They were two players down, as were Pukwudgie, but Thunderbird were now three points up.

Scott had been right in his assessment of Pukwudgie- without Lemaire to hold them back, there were some great Players. Madeline managed to put another Quod past Scott, and the rest of them had a kamikaze style- holding onto the Quod for long periods as they charged up the pitch to get it to the Pot or die trying. In this way they scored two points but lost four more Players, leaving them with two Players to Thunderbird’s three.

Gordon put away a goal, extending their lead, and when the new Quod was brought out it exploded on Rimmer, leaving Madeline alone with Pukwudgie’s two Beaters and Keeper.

“This is getting exciting now!” said Horse to the crowd. “It’s just Madeline left for Pukwudgie. Will she play it safe, or will she try to pull back the two point lead from Thunderbird? She gets the new Quod first, loses it thanks to a Bludger from Tracy. Tracy picks it up -the blonde one for those who can’t keep up!-, throws it to Anderson, throws it to Hardiker he throws it back to Tracy- but he overshoots! Bad control there from the Thunderbird Chaser, and Atwal catches the Quod. She’s racing up the pitch but- no! The Quod has exploded! It’s all over and Thunderbird win with three Players left and a score of Nine to Four!”

The Thunderbirds still on their brooms descended on each other, screaming loudly and hugging in mid-air. They flew down onto the pitch where the rest of their house had surged onto the pitch and pulled them onto their shoulders. Gordon looked across at Scott, beaming brightly, his first match a success.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm probably going to leave it a while before I update this series as I have other work coming up


End file.
